George Osborne will soon be forced to show his hand on climate change | Michael Jacobs

The chancellor's budget was notable for its silence on green issues but the approaching 'fifth carbon budget' signals crunch time for the Tories' climate policies

Any climate change activists listening to the chancellor'sbudget speech must have perked up when George Osborne said: "I am not prepared to look back at my time here in this parliament ... and say to my children's generation: I'm sorry. We knew there was a problem " but we ducked the difficult decisions and we did nothing."

Was the man previously known as the architect of the government's anti-climate policies about to undergo a dramatic conversion to the green cause?